Chart Shows COVID-19 Cases In County May Be Have Leveling Off After Spiking

By MARK EVANS

mevans@stegenherald.com

Looking at weekly numbers, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Ste. Genevieve County seems to have leveled off.

While the total number of cases since March continues climbing toward 1,000, the crucial number of active cases at any one time, took a welcome dip the week of Nov. 19.

Each Thursday morning, Jeanette Wood, provisional administrator of the county health department, reports to the County Commission with updated numbers. While those numbers change quickly (totally different by the Thursday evenings once or twice a month when she reports to the Ste. Genevieve Board of Aldermen), using the weekly Thursday morning figures gives a week-by-week basis to analyze trends.

The county’s oft-mentioned “bubble” of safety, amidst burgeoning numbers of cases in surrounding counties, was finally popped  in August.

Vacations, activities and an apparent face mask-wearing, social distancing fatigue among the public seemed to bring about this spike.

The first week of October, Wood reported 23 active cases in the county.  The numbers stayed about the same, with 31 and 27, until late October.

They then spiked again, with 55 active cases Oct. 22 and 87 Oct. 29.

Naturally, any increases like that lead to fears of an ongoing spike. However, the number fell to 62  the first week in November, before exploding for the biggest total to date, 110 active cases on Nov. 12.

Happily, the figure was back at 68 cases the following week.

COMPARING COUNTIES

Getting identical statistics for different periods or different areas is not always easy. The state dashboard keeps track of seven-day numbers of new cases.  As of Monday, Ste. Genevieve County had 74 new cases in seven days. During that time, Perry County had 69 new cases, St. Francois County had 280 new cases, and Jefferson County had 950 new cases.

It also records number